image

What to expect during your boudoir journey

The time has come!

Maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, or a dream you had for a long time, but you finally took the decision to book your boudoir shoot.

 
naked man sitting on couch holding a love sign
 

You feel super excited, maybe a little bit nervous because it might be your first time and you wonder:

Now what?!

You don't know what to expect, you are not sure what the next steps are, you can feel confused by all the information you see on different websites…

Do not wonder any longer, today we are sharing with you our process for our boudoir shoots.

Let's talk pricing first

When you go on our website, you can read that our pricing is cut in two:

  • First there is the session fee, which includes the expertise of two photographers (Juliette and Fanny, hi this is us 😀), the loft rental, makeup and hair, and the boudoir shoot.

  • Second, there are the photo packages for digital pictures, prints, and albums.

The reason behind divided our pricing in two is very simple. We believe you should be able to choose the quantity of photographs you want to purchase (instead of paying from the start, for example, for 25 images when you want only 15).

On top of that, it gives you the option for multiple instalments. Not everyone can afford to pay everything at once.

Use our contact form

Once you have looked at our portfolio and work's details, the next step is to send us an email. For that, we have a very easy-to-fill contact form.

When contacting us, do not hesitate to tell us why you want to do a shoot and what your story is. We LOVE when people share their reasons behind wanted to do a shoot. And it also help us to have a better idea of what you have in mind.

It is time to chat

black woman posing outdoors in the fall wearing white lacey gown. She looks peaceful

Once you sent us your email, we will reply to you within 24 hours, with some details and the option to book a virtual meeting with us. This is a very important part of the process in which you can tell us more about your ideas or vision, ask us any questions, see if we are a good fit, and book a potential date for your shoot.

It is free and does not commit you to anything.

All in one platform

Once the meeting is over, we will send you everything you need in order to book your shoot:

  • invoice and steps to pay the deposit;

  • contract;

  • and release option (to choose if we can use or not your pictures).

Everything is sent to you digitally via an online platform that keeps all the document in your private portal. No need to print anything and easy to access.

Loft & makeup

Once the deposit is paid, we book one of our talented makeup artists (if you which to have your hair and makeup done by a professional) and we also take care of booking the loft. Both are located in Toronto. Our designer lofts are beautiful: from industrial vibes (bricks, beams, warm tones), to a modern atmosphere (neutral tones, airy decors).

We make sure to rent one you will love, based on what you shared during the virtual meeting.

The real fun begins

gorgeous big person wearing black lingerie with flower patterns posing in a confident way

This is the moment you have been dreaming of… and also our favourite part! Those next 90 minutes (length of the shoot) will be about you, AND ONLY YOU.

During that time you will have fun, let loose, and pose like the badass and confident being you are. After the session, you will feel like you can do anything!

When you arrive, we go over the clothes and accessories you brought (which will probably be in a big suitcase 😉), help you mix and match, and select 3 outfits you really want to wear during the shoot. We usually have time to shoot extra ones as well.

It is our role to guide you, and pose you accordingly to your body type and the vibe you want to have for each outfits. We believe we all have different personalities, so doing a boudoir shoot is the perfect opportunity to embrace all of them!

When do I see my pictures?

It has been two weeks since your shoot, the time for your viewing session has arrived. You might ask yourself:

“A what? “

See it as the big reveal, the moment when we show you how well you posed during the shoot. Usually we meet at our home office, over pastries and tea. But we can also do your viewing session on Zoom where we will share our screen with you if it is more convenient for you.

During the viewing session, we show you a selection of your pictures (we would have removed the doubles and test shots), and help you decide the ones you want to purchase.

Photos & prints

You will get your photographs digitally, in high resolution (meaning you can print them the size of your wall if you want to 🔥), without any watermark, and delivered via an online private gallery.

If you are like us and enjoy being able to see your pictures on paper, we work with a wonderful professional and private printer who provides high quality prints and albums.

And after?

You did your shoot and got your beautiful images, so it would be normal to think that you are done with us. But it does not have to be like that! You can of course decide to live your life and forget about Scandaleuse, or you can do what most of our clients do:

 
group of topless people posing on black couch being confident
 

Be part of our community, full of badass, strong, and powerful Scandals!

We always have events, special shoots, or content in which our community can participate to. We also love when our clients share their transformation with us. Boudoir is so much more than pretty pictures. It pushes you to go after what you want in life, and makes you feel empowered. Why?

Because once you strip down in front of two strangers, nothing can stop you 🤩

You can also sign up below for our weekly newsletter to receive our blogs, fun things to discover, events to come, and more:

We respect your email privacy

6 unusual inquiries we got for boudoir photography

Once upon a time, two boudoir photographers were having tasty breakfast together. And like most of new entrepreneurs, they decided to open their emails to check on new inquiries like they did every morning. That day they got a new one and happily started to read it, but their joy faded away when they saw the email attachment: a dick pic… They never opened their emails in the morning ever again 😂

 
two women drinking coffee in a vintage coffee shop and laughing
 

We receive a lot of badass and emotional emails, but from time to time creepy and unusual requests are popping up. Some are hilarious, others are disturbing

Scandals, here is our top 6 of the weirdest inquiries we got since we opened Scandaleuse Photography:

N°6 : The dick pic guy

If there is something intriguing with Boudoir and men, is that most of the gentlemen who contact us for a boudoir shoot want to do something more sexual. Which is not a problem! Even if we do not shoot this type of photography we understand everyone has their own fantasies and there is nothing wrong with that. But what is the most disturbing for us is that some men believe we need to see their pee-pee before accepting to work with them. And it usually goes like this:

- Them: “I wanna shoot with you, do you need to see what I look like?”

- Us: “No need to! We do not chose our clients based on their look or body type.”

- Them: sending the picture of big Willy and the twins (with the worst angle and lighting) even thought we said no 😤 But if you really want to show us your joystick, at least do it in an artistic way!

Joke aside, here is a gentle reminder to anyone who want to send us pictures of their genital: just don’t, we really don’t need to see what you look like down there!

It was very tempting to add a moustache and a hat on this photograph and send it back to that particular client. Should we do it next time?

 
 

N°5 : The iPad guy

This made us laugh!

We received a long time ago an email from a guy who wanted to shoot one of his sexual fantasy with us, we don’t remember exactly what it was about. With his inquiry he attached a script of all the scenarios he had in mind, scene by scene with details of what we had to shoot (was it badly written on top of being weird? Absolutely!).

But wait, the best part was that he requested that we shoot only with is iPad. Go figure!

N°4 : The pink blouse guy

One day we were contacted by a man who wanted to do a boudoir shoot for his future husband. His idea was to lay down on a bed made of Kleenex - once again everyone has a fantasy. He was also looking for a wedding photographer but didn't want to tell us the date of the wedding - RED FLAG. The icing on the cake was when he asked us to wear pink blouses for the first meeting, because (and we quote) "the first impression is very important".

Sure! Do you want us to wear a french maid outfit so we can clean your discourtesy off your face? 

We nicely told him we would not do it, so he decided to go with another photographer and apparently found one… Good for him!

N° 3 : The "I like humiliation" guy

This one was probably the most recent one. We received an email from a guy who lost a bet and had to do a boudoir shoot, wearing high heels, sexy dress, lingerie and/or be nude. He had to walk like a model and be shoot in some very embarrassing poses, for his humiliation and women amusement.

We obviously declined, told him boudoir photography is an art, and that we work only with people who respect this type of photography.

But we added we could provide some headshots for professional purpose if he was interested. You have to see business opportunity everywhere right?!

 
two women opening an email they did not want to see
 

N° 2 : The "you need to wear sexy clothes so I can feel turned on" guy

Ooooh man, this was our first weird inquiry. This married man sent us an email because he was looking to do a couple boudoir shoot with his wife. They have been married for 20 years and they were looking to spice up their relationship. We were pretty happy about it since, at that time, we didn't get a lot of couples interested by a boudoir shoot. So he started to explain what he wanted, sent us example of videos and pictures (remember the dick pic story previously, well those were the beginning). His wife had apparently a big and sexual appetite and they were looking for erotic photography. We explained to him this is not the type of service we offer but we could give them sensual pictures without crossing our boundaries.

We were not against working with them, they wanted to celebrate the love they have for each other by trying a new experience.

Unfortunately he crossed the line when he asked us to dress up very sexy during the shoot so he can be more excited. We were happy to not go forward with this inquiry: this couple were the lions, we were the gazelles. 

N° 1: The "let's redo American Pie" guy

And the winner is... (actually my little favourite, probably because I watch all of the American Pie movies)
A man who loved his mom decided to treat her with a boudoir shoot and reach out to us. What a sweet and thoughtful gentleman who was open minded enough to offer this beautiful experience as a gift for his mom. Or so we thought.

We were pretty intrigued so we replied to him asking for more details. Maybe his mom asked him to book the shoot for her, maybe it was a gift for his parents' wedding anniversary, or maybe his mom had self-confidence issues and he wanted to let her out.

We were so wrong, it was not a thoughtful idea but a pretty crazy one:

He wanted some pictures taken of his mom and his best-friend like the scene in the first “American Pie” when Paul Finch is having sex on the pool table with Stifler’s mom. The story never said if it was a spam or a serious request. 

Yes we are photographers whose main goal is to highlight the beauty and sensuality of every bodies, but it doesn't mean we get sexual pleasure out of it. So keep your pants on (at least until the day of the shoot)! We are not part of your fantasy, don't plan to be, and will never ever touch your purple-helmeted warrior of love.  

 
 

Do you want more of those blogs, on top of weekly tips and tricks, and extra fun thing to read? Then sign up to our newsletter below that is send once a week!

* indicates required

How to start your business: putting your fears aside

As you may know Scandals, our first year of business is over and so far it has been running well. But you know what they say: it takes 3 years for a business to be successful, we have done half of it so… yay to us!

It has been a year and a half full of stress – joy – tears – laughs – fears - surprises – projects  – beauty – nudity (sometimes not wanted). You got the idea; our emotion and lives were like a roller coaster: lots of ups and some downs. Having a business is the dream of most of the people we meet and every time Juliette and I hear the same things: “you guys are so brave to go through this process”, “I would love to do it but I do not have the time or/and the money”, “How did you guys do it?

Well Mesdames et Messieurs, here is the secret, you need to think super super strongly about an idea and tada!! It’s happening. Drop the mic, end of this blog…

 
Jessie-Lam-yoga-toronto-scandaleuse-photography-boudoir-8.jpg
 

THE REALITY

I wish it was so simple. Unfortunately there are no magic tricks, you just have to bite the bullet (I know, so disappointing right?). Like anything in life actually, if you want something to be done, you have to make it happen. Were we scared? Oh hell yes. Did we ask ourselves a thousand questions? Totally. Did we think it wasn’t the good time to start Scandaleuse? Absolutely not!

It was our main goal and we were so ready to start this new adventure because we knew it can give us a financial freedom and a happy state of mind. You have to feel confident in your vision, you have to trust your guts and ask yourself the good questions:

Is it the fear of failing?

Lack of experience or knowledge?

Not enough time or money?

Lack of support from your love ones?

Not having a strong project?

Knowing what the problem is will help you to find a solution to move forward. You also have to stop finding excuses, the only barriers are the ones you are creating to stop yourself.

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

The first steps are always the most difficult ones and they will make you feel overwhelmed. Educating yourself and being well organized will help you to feel more confident in your project.

 
scandaleuse-photography-toronto-boudoir-business.jpg
 

Time and Money

Before starting, make sure you will have enough time and money to invest. If you want it to be your full time job, your business will become your baby and has to be a priority. You will spend countless hours of work so be ready to change your schedule and make some sacrifices. If you decide to have a part time job while building it, it is going to take way more time to be ready for its launch. The best is to focus 100% and have a good 3 months of savings on the side.

Baby Steps

  • Develop an idea but make sure it is realistic and practical: If your dream is to sell homemade panties made of wood, you have to be sure clients will buy them because the primary purpose of every business is to maximize profits ($$$) for its owner. Do your own research, find out who your competitors are, analyze the market and start this goddamn business plan.
     
  • Talk about your project: It is very important to share your vision with your surroundings. Talk to your family, friends and even strangers about what you have in mind, they would be very happy to give their opinion and help. You can be surprised how creative, smart and resourceful people can be.
     
  • Find a badass name and a kickass logo: When you create a business, you are building a brand and you want people to be able to remember and scream your name. One more time, ask people to tell you honestly what they think about it, if it describe your project, if it is catchy or too common, if it would make them buy your service or product…
     
  • Build your social media and content: You need to be everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube, you name it. Your customers will be mostly online and are craving for interesting and creative contents. You will have to take pictures and make videos about your product/service several times per week if you want people to buy it.
     
  • Make it legal: Just in case you had the idea of screwing with the government… well don’t. Learn what category correspond the best with your business (Corporate, Partnership or Sole Proprietorship…), register your business and potentially for HST, apply for trademark name if needed. You can also get free advice from the City Hall and Canada Revenue Agency has a program who helps new entrepreneurs with taxes. 

Being entrepreneurs is not easy but we would not go back, we love the freedom of working for ourselves and making Scandaleuse Photography an empire.

Put your fears on the side and most importantly, don’t forget to have fun!